String Cheese Incident Attempts to Battle Ticketmaster Fees

A jam-band called String Cheese Incident is buying a large amount of tickets to its own shows from Ticketmaster and re-selling them to its fans via its own website to help fans avoid Ticketmaster service charges. The band is simply eating the service charge costs themselves, in an attempt to "stage a symbolic protest as part of a decade-long conflict with Ticketmaster." A snippet of the article is below. What are your thoughts on Ticketmaster's service charges, which the article states can add 30-40 percent to the cost of an order?

From the Article

“It costs us money to sell the tickets,” Keith Moseley, the band’s bassist, said. “But we are going to eat that cost this summer in order to make a better deal for our fans and let them know how much we appreciate them.”

With the summer touring season starting, the band’s challenge to the entrenched ticket-sales system is a reminder of how ticketing may be the concert industry’s most charged issue, affecting artists, fans and all sides of the business.

That's awesome! Shit part is, Ticketmaster is still making money off their surcharges so it's not a slap in the face to them. If only there's a way the band can sell tickets without Ticketmaster surcharges.

I think this is an awesome thing they're doing. Being from Colorado, I'd always read and hear about these guys. I'm surprised to see them still doin' their thing. Oh, and Ticketmaster has long fucked me in the ass with "service charge" fees.

It's so good that they're doing that for they're fans, but they definitely are doing nothing but making a statement. Ticketmaster isn't affected by this at all.

Their fees are ridiculous, though. I've decided to skip about ten concerts in the past couple years because of fees from $10 to $15. I'd rather drive up 75 miles to a venue and buy them at the box office then deal with Ticketmaster.

That's awesome! Shit part is, Ticketmaster is still making money off their surcharges so it's not a slap in the face to them. If only there's a way the band can sell tickets without Ticketmaster surcharges.

They have been fighting Ticketmaster for a while now. As protests go, I'm not sure they could have done anything more than this.

What is the benefits of Ticketmaster? They must provide a service, right?

Well if you are a venue that puts on big shows like this, you kinda like Ticketmaster. They pay you a commission to be able to sell your tickets to the public, and they can afford that because they charge service fees at the expense of the consumer. Now, if you are the venue, you can obviously sell your own tickets on your own website, but Ticketmaster is simply a third-man service that cuts out that effort for you. So you get paid by Ticketmaster - not as much as you'd make if you charged your own (smaller) service fees, obviously, but you don't have to worry about distributing your tickets. It's just outsourcing work for convenience.